Speaking last week on Alabama's Faith
Radio, Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow with the Family Research Council
(FRC), defended so-called religious freedom bills criticized as
targeting the LGBT community.

Sprigg was discussing Mississippi's
bill in particular. The legislation allows businesses to deny
services to LGBT people based on their “sincerely held religious
beliefs or moral convictions.”

Sprigg criticized opponents of the law,
saying that these activists want to “punish people for holding
traditional moral views.”

“The irony here is that for all the
howling about discrimination against LGBT people, since this bill is
about preventing government discrimination against religious
believers and people of faith and people with traditional moral
values, anybody who opposes this bill is essentially saying: ‘We
think it’s okay for government to discriminate against those
people. We think it’s okay for government to punish people for
holding traditional moral views. In fact, we think that government
should punish people in order to do everything it can to wipe those
views out of existence,'” Sprigg
said.

“That’s basically the point of view
of the LGBT movement at this point in history,” he continued. “It’s
shocking and it’s un-American. It’s contrary to our traditions,
which are to protect the views of all people, including the people
who agree with you and the people who disagree with you.”